(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fire fighting and, more particularly, to a special nozzle and appended equipment for punching through walls, bulkheads, and the like to allow water or other fire quenchants or inhibitory materials to be sprayed or otherwise distributed on the opposite side of the wall or bulkhead. More particularly still, the invention relates to an apparatus for punching through quarter-inch or thicker steel plate to allow a spray nozzle to be positioned on the opposite side of such plate or bulkhead to attack a fire.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In the fighting of fires, fire personnel frequently find the fire or the principal locus of the fire behind a wall, bulkhead, or other barrier which prevents easy access to such fire. One of the uses of the ubiquitous fireman's ax was, and still is, to breach various of these barriers such as doors and walls in residences and business establishments to enable the firemen to gain access to the fire. It is a toss up, in fact, whether the fireman's ax is used more frequently to chop holes in roofs and the like in order to release heat and toxic fumes from a fire in a relatively harmless direction, or whether the ax is used more frequently to breach barriers which prevent the fireman from having access to the fire.
It was early suggested that it would be advantageous to have a hose nozzle which could itself be forced through a wall or the like without first making a hole with another implement, particularly so that quenchant could be injected behind the wall or the like without exposing the fireman to the heat of the fire behind such wall as well as preventing access to the fire by oxygen in the air on the cool side of the barrier. One of the first suggestions for such a fire tool was U.S. Pat. No. 1,644,290 issued Oct. 4, 1927 to L. R. Titcomb et al. The Titcomb device comprised a rotatable drill-type hose nozzle having spiral ridges on the nozzle for, in effect, drilling through a wall or the like, and orifices in the spiral section to allow water to be injected through the wall after the wall was breached by the drilling operation. The Titcomb drill was manually operated.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,413,083, issued Dec. 24, 1946 to W. E. Snowden et al., discloses an injection nozzle also for manual injection, particularly through aluminum or magnesium alloy sheet metal surfaces such as the skin of an airplane and the like. External fins or ribs which aid in rupturing or breaching such light sheet metal are positioned on the exterior of the nozzle. Slanted orifices for fire quenchant are provided in the sides of the nozzle which has a conically pointed head.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,732,017, issued Jan. 24, 1956 to J. B. Fleming, discloses a further type of extinguishing device, particularly for use in extinguishing burning tires on trucks which have become ignited through friction with the road, particularly when deflated. The device is designed to be forced through the tire by manual pressure and includes a foot-receiving shoulder upon which force may be applied by the foot to puncture the wall of the tire. The injection tube has a slanted end to facilitate puncturing the side wall of the tire; and in at least one view, the device is shown being inserted into the tire at an angle, mainly, it appears, as a result of holding the device in the hand while applying foot pressure to the bottom portion. Fire fighting material such as CO.sub.2 is injected directly into the tire from the end of the tube which is thrust through the tire side wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,756,829, issued Jul. 31, 1956 to J. D. Phillips, discloses another device for extinguishing fires in tires in which the extinguishing material is injected into the tire after the side wall of the tire is punctured by a spear-type point on the end of the device. The spear-type point of the Phillips device comes to a sharp central point.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,813,753, issued Nov. 19, 1957 to F. C. Roberts, discloses a fog nozzle for fire-fighting incorporating a slanted or beveled end through which an orifice passes and a series of inclined orifices on the sides, each of which exit into a round orifice oriented straight out from the surface of a conical portion of the nozzle. The fire-fighting fluid passing from the interior orifice into the outer orifice is broken up into small droplets which serve to form a fog within a chamber into which the nozzle has penetrated. The forward end of the nozzle is referred to as defining a "chisel portion of the nozzle used to break plaster, board, glass or the like when the nozzle is penetrated through a wall or the like". The nozzle is apparently thrust manually through a wall or other barrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,857,005, issued Oct. 21, 1958 to D. E. Medlock, discloses an apparatus for injecting fire-fighting fluid within the fuselage of an aircraft. The apparatus includes a rotating drill-like nozzle having orifices in its wall. It is stated that the drill portion of the tool should be formed from some rugged material such as tool steel or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,194, issued Feb. 11, 1975 to J. F. Chatfield, Jr., discloses a drill-type fire fighting apparatus for breaching the walls of buildings and the like. A rotary cutting bit on the end does the actual breaching of the wall. More or less straight forward fluid orifices are provided in the end.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,216, issued Apr. 3, 1979 to R. W. Schnepfe et al., discloses a penetrant or nozzle arrangement particularly for fires in aircraft and the like. The device includes a cutter mounted concentrically with the nozzle which is initially forced forward to breach the light metal skin of the aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,084, issued Aug. 26, 1980 to N. C. Gray et al., discloses a fire-fighting nozzle assembler having a forward conical penetrator, a cylindrical spray orifice section to which the penetrator is attached, and a series of ribs or handles to be grasped by the user to be able to obtain sufficient force to press the nozzle assembly through the aluminum or other light metal skin of an aircraft. Different nozzles may be used on the end to obtain various spray patterns. An integral movable weight associated with the nozzle is used to, in effect, hammer through the aluminum or other light metal skin of an aircraft or the thicker but still light metal skin of a spacecraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,909, issued Jun. 9, 1981 to J. F. Chatfield et al., discloses a hydraulically operated tool which can use various cutting implements at the end to give access to a fire location. The tools are either rotated or reciprocated by the fluid pressure and include reciprocating chisel arrangements.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,808, issued Dec. 2, 1986 to P. F. Halfpenny, discloses an arrangement for breaching the light metal skin of an aircraft including an explosive penetrator and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,319, issued Jun. 30, 1987 to R. H. Cuthbertson, discloses a fire-fighting apparatus for use with aircraft and the like to breach the light metal wall of the aircraft. The tip of the device may rotate and is provided with a sharp end with a water or quenchant nozzle in between the end and the angled orifices, as shown, and quenchant or other fluid-type fire-fighting material is injected into the aircraft through a hollow, sharp-pointed penetrator means. There are both inclined and straight through quenchant orifices. In one embodiment, the end of the tool is forced through the light metal skin of an aircraft or the like by a reciprocating impact motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,740, issued Oct. 6, 1987 to E. W. Ivy, discloses a mist generator having a tapered or beveled outer penetrator or piercing section described as comprising a truncated cylinder having an elliptically shaped beveled surface. The water quenchant may be broken up into a mist by a rotating inner perforated member. The piercing operation is manually performed.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,535, issued Feb. 7, 1989 to A. N. Bakke, discloses a hand-held nozzle having a sharp end for punching through light walls and the like. The device has a conical end and may include special handles for manipulation. There is a separate hard conical end and the orifices in the sides of the apparatus are set at various differential angles so as to gain a uniform flow of quenchant liquid in the device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,265, issued May 23, 1989 to R. Anfosso et al., discloses a percussion-type perforator injector for breaching relatively strong walls which is intended not only for fire fighting, but also for use by public order officers.
As will be seen from the above-cited references, a number of devices have been devised for the injection of water or other quenchant materials to the interior of a building or the like after a breach has been made by the devices themselves. None of the devices of the prior art are adapted, however, for breaching relatively heavy wall or bulkhead material such as a steel plate having a quarter-inch thickness or more. None of the apparatus, so as the inventor is aware, is effective in punching through more than three-sixteenths (3/16ths) inch steel plate or, in most cases, even considerably thinner material or even metals with considerably less inherent strength. Since the bulkheads in many or most naval vessels as well as civilian vessels are customarily formed from quarter-inch steel plate, the heretofore available penetrator nozzles have been unsatisfactory for shipboard use in particular and have, therefore, not even been made available. There is a need, therefore, for an apparatus which will easily breach a quarter-inch plate to inject on the other side a fluid used in the quenching of fire. There has been a clear need, therefore, to provide a penetrating fire nozzle which will penetrate normal quarter-inch plate, which is a standard material for the bulkheads dividing compartments on shipboard as well as in other uses. There is a further clear need for the provision of an apparatus and apparatus system that may be used to punch through a steel bulkhead or similar material or, in fact, any heavy material up to and including a half-inch or more of plate steel.
One of the difficulties in piercing heavy barriers of any nature under fire conditions is that even when a tool sufficiently rugged to punch through the barrier is available with sufficient power to apply the force necessary, there is usually no way to brace the device to allow a significant force to be applied to the surface. A fireman leaning against a punch, for example, or even several firemen leaning against a punch, is severely limited in the amount of force which can be applied. The force ultimately available, for example, depends basically upon the mass of the firemen. This is relatively negligible when dealing with a steel barrier or the like. The force available can be increased basically by applying additional momentum or dynamic force along with static force to the punch. This course has been followed by several of the prior references cited above. However, such expedient also has strict limitations.
In spite of the above difficulties in many environments, and particularly on shipboard, there is invariably a solid surface relatively close by. On shipboard, this is usually the adjacent deck, and in other environments, the floor of a building or the ground surface. The deck, however, while close by, is also at right angles so that it is difficult to brace against it without slippage along either the deck or the adjacent bulkhead. The adjacent deck or ground surface, therefore, has not been considered to be a practical bracing medium. The present inventor, however, has unexpectedly found that with a properly arranged tool, the expected slippage and bending damage to the tool itself does not occur and with the proper design use of the adjacent deck as a bracing surface, very high pressure can be applied to a section of bulkhead sufficient to penetrate relatively heavy or thick barriers.